Students follow the AQA English Literature B specification. There are two examination papers for which students will prepare. They account for 80% of the total A level. Paper 1: Aspects of Tragedy The first paper is two and a half hours long and requires students to answer questions on texts which illustrate Aspects of Tragedy. You will study two drama texts, Othello by William Shakespeare and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, and a poetry text, comprising four poems by John Keats (Isabella, or The Pot of Basil, La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Lamia and The Eve of St Agnes). Paper 2: Elements of Crime Writing / Elements of Political and Social Protest Writing The second paper is three hours long and for this students will study texts which illustrate either Elements of Crime Writing or Elements of Political and Social Protest Writing. If you focus on Elements of Crime Writing, you will study two prose texts, Atonement by Ian McEwan and Brighton Rock by Graham Greene, and a poetry text, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. If you focus on Elements of Political and Social Protest Writing, you will study a prose text, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, a poetry text, The Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake, and a drama text, A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen. This paper will also require students to respond analytically to an unseen text. Non-exam Assessment: Theory and Independence The coursework is entitled ‘Theory and Independence’. It accounts for 20% of the total A level. There are two tasks, each one requiring an essay of 1,250 – 1,500 words in length. For the first task you will study a prose text (for example, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Regeneration by Pat Barker and The Collector by John Fowles). For the second task you will study a poetry text (for example, the poetry of Carol Ann Duffy, Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes).